Commentary: Thirty games for ... what?

Thursday

Apr 24, 2008 at 2:00 AM

The MLS regular season, a seven-month ordeal stretching from the last week of March to the waning days of October, is simply too long – especially when it leads up to the league’s everybody’s-a-winner playoff format.

ADAM SMARTSCHAN

Whatever happens tonight in Dallas, the New England Revolution has done an admirable job of riding out injuries to two of its best and brightest.

The extended absences of Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston could have scuttled the Revs’ hopes for a strong beginning, but solid play from replacements like Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally has them alive and kicking in the Eastern Conference at 2-2-1.

But even the worst-case scenario – a total tanking without the team’s top scorer and assist man – likely wouldn’t have kept New England out of the MLS Cup playoffs. And that highlights one of the biggest problems with Major League Soccer.

The MLS regular season, a seven-month ordeal stretching from the last week of March to the waning days of October, is simply too long – especially when it leads up to the league’s everybody’s-a-winner playoff format.

Teams play 30 regular-season games a year, seeing opponents two or three times apiece in a marathon that spans spring, summer and fall (and winter, if you count the chilly opener at Gillette Stadium). The payoff? Eight – eight! – of the league’s 14* teams qualify for the two-leg conference semifinals that begin this year on Oct. 30.

Even after MLS expands to Seattle (next year) and Philadelphia/Chester, Pa. (2010), that’s basically half the teams getting in. Now, it’s nearly two-thirds (57 percent), compared with 53 percent in the NBA and NHL, 38 percent in the NFL and 27 percent in Major League Baseball.

Last year alone, teams that went 12-11-7 (New York), 10-10-10 (Chicago) and 11-12-7 (Kansas City) made the playoffs, as did two squads (Chicago and Dallas) that surrendered more goals than they scored.

If Twellman is out for the long end of his estimated recovery period, he’ll return to the field sometime around New England’s May 24 game at the Columbus Crew.

Even if the Revs had lost every game from the season’s second match at Chicago to the May 17 home game against San Jose, they’d have to play little better than .500 ball over the remainder of the regular season to reach the playoffs, by last year’s points standards.

Think about that. It’s entirely possible for a team to throw away two months’ worth of games, be a little above average the rest of the way ... and make the playoffs.

Every game counts!

It’s time for a scheduling change in MLS. Even with further expansion (and a larger pool from which the eight playoff teams can be plucked), 30 games is simply too many for each one to hold any kind of real importance. How can they, especially with the increased attention being leveled on international competitions like SuperLiga?

Here’s the answer: Just hack the beginning off the slate.

At its heart, MLS is a summertime league. It’s played outdoors, in a country where soccer is a warm-weather sport, in stadiums largely without European-style semi-roofs covering the crowds.

So say goodbye to MLS in March and April. And say hello to 24-game regular seasons. Keep it that way through the current round of expansion – a few bucks saved on road trips could offset some lost revenue.

Twenty-four games in six months could prove taxing, but no worse than the schedule congestion a team like the Revs will experience this season. New England plays 2008 league games on Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays, Thursday and a Friday. There’s plenty of days to make it happen.

As long as it’s going to be harder to miss the MLS Cup playoffs than to make them, at least make the run-up a little more meaningful.

*Due to a reporting error, in early versions of this column, the number of teams in MLS was incorrectly stated.

Staff writer Adam Smartschan can be reached at asmartschan@capecodonline.com.